UK

‘Insufficient evidence’ for manslaughter prosecution after explosion deaths

Three men and a teenage boy died in the incident in Avonmouth in December 2020.


THE INCIDENT HAPPENED IN DECEMBER 2020 (BEN BIRCHALL/PA)
PA ARCHIVE

CLAIRE HAYHURST

There is insufficient evidence for a manslaughter prosecution relating to the deaths of three men and a teenage boy who were killed in an explosion at a water recycling centre, police have said.

Luke Wheaton, 16, from Bradley Stoke, Ray White, 57, from Portishead, Brian Vickery, 63, from Clevedon, and Mike James, 64, from Bath, died in the incident at the Wessex Water site on December 3 2020.

It is understood that Mr James was a contractor working at the site, while Mr Vickery and Mr White were employees of Wessex Water and Luke was an apprentice at the firm.

In this case, the evidence we’ve gathered doesn’t reach the extremely high threshold to prosecute any criminal offence of manslaughter

AVON AND SOMERSET POLICE

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Avon and Somerset Police said its major crime investigation team had been leading the inquiry into the cause of the explosion, assisted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

A force spokesman said the investigation had focused on whether any individuals were responsible for the explosions, as well as whether any health and safety offences had been committed.

Detectives, along with HSE investigators, recently met with the Crown Prosecution Service to review the case and it was decided there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a criminal conviction for manslaughter”.

The HSE will now work to establish whether criminal offences may have been committed under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the spokesman added.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Almond, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “Throughout our inquiry the families of Luke, Ray, Brian and Mike have been firmly in our thoughts.

“The families have demonstrated great dignity and patience while we carried out our inquiries and I’d like to publicly thank them for their support and understanding over the past three and a half years.

“Inquiries of this kind are extremely complex and require the support of other agencies to gather evidence and then a variety of experts to help us interpret what that evidence tells us.

“In this case, the evidence we’ve gathered doesn’t reach the extremely high threshold to prosecute any criminal offence of manslaughter.

The four colleagues will always be in the thoughts of everyone connected to Wessex Water

WESSEX WATER

“We have met all the families to explain this development and to inform them of what will happen next, with HSE taking ownership of the investigation.”

Emergency services were called to reports of a large explosion involving one of the chemical tanks at the site at around 11.20am on December 3, 2020.

The blast happened in a silo that held treated biosolids.

In tributes released through police following the tragedy, Luke was described as “the most gorgeous, loving, happy, talented, perfect son”.

Mr White’s family said he was “a wonderful son, brother and father to his two sons”, while Mr Vickery’s family paid tribute to his “cheeky and wicked sense of humour”.

Mr James’s family described him as a “brother, husband, father and Grampy”, adding that he would be missed.

Simon Chilcott, principal inspector at HSE, confirmed that investigators were in regular contact with the families of those who died.

He said: “We have been a part of this complex inquiry from the outset. Now as the lead agency, we will continue to carry out a robust criminal investigation to establish if there have been any breaches of health and safety law.”

A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “We’re continuing to work with the Health and Safety Executive as they carry out their investigations and are committed to understanding why the incident happened.

“The four colleagues will always be in the thoughts of everyone connected to Wessex Water.”

Ancient wild goat added to rare breeds watchlist to support conservation

The Cheviot goat, whose population centres around a herd living wild in Northumberland, is a link to UK’s original domesticated goats, experts say.


CHEVIOT GOATS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO A RARE BREEDS WATCHLIST (DAVE HUNT/PA)

EMILY BEAMENT

12 HOURS AGO

Goats which live in a wild herd in Northumberland and are a crucial link to ancient domesticated goats have been added to a watch list of rare breeds.


The Cheviot goat, whose population centres on a wild herd in the Cheviot Hills and is considered an “authentic remnant” of Britain’s original primitive goats, has been added to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) watchlist.

The watchlist is the RBST’s annual report on the conservation status of the UK’s native livestock and equine breeds, highlighting which are the most endangered.

A CHEVIOT GOAT KID. THE RBST SAYS THERE ONLY AN ESTIMATED 450 OF THE BREED REMAINING

The trust said that there were only an estimated 450 Cheviot goats – including the wild herd and animals held by private breeders and for conservation grazing schemes – and only 86 females producing offspring in 2023.

So it is adding the goat to the watchlist’s “feral population” category, recognising the breed as a rare native feral population to support its conservation.

Primitive goats have existed in Britain for thousands of years, from those kept by subsistence farmers in the Bronze and Iron Ages through to herds on medieval manors, prized for their milk, meat, skin, hair and tallow.

These original primitive goats had died out as domesticated animals by the mid-1900s as breeds were mixed to increase dairy production, but the bloodlines survived in some long-standing, isolated feral herds which had become established due to the animals’ tendency to escape, the RBST said.

According to legend, the goats of the Cheviot Hills originated when the monks of Lindisfarne abandoned the monastery in 875AD, and as they herded their livestock along the way, the goats were too feisty to control, escaped and were left to roam in the area, the charity said.

Cheviot goats are extremely important both culturally and genetically, and they are also excellent for conservation grazing

CHRISTOPHER PRICE, RBST

Labour’s Scottish gains are fragile

10 July, 2024 -
Author: Ann Field
WORKERS LIBERTY, UK



Scotland was the only part of Britain where Labour’s share of votes on 4 July was up in 2023 compared to 2019. In England, Labour won seats because of Tory voters staying home or switching to Reform, but had no overall rise in vote-share.

In Scotland, Labour won 37 seats (up from one in 2019), the SNP won nine seats (down from 48), the Lib-Dems won six seats (up from four), and the Tories won five seats (down from six).

The Greens (until recently allied with the SNP in government) contested most Scottish seats, generally winning between one and two thousand votes. In some Glasgow and Edinburgh constituencies, they polled between 4,000 and 5,000 votes. Reform UK contested all Scottish constituencies and usually won 3,000 plus votes.

The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (led by the Socialist Party) stood in four seats, winning just over 1,500 votes in total. The Scottish Socialist Party (led by Richie Venton) stood two candidates, picking up a thousand votes in total.

Labour won 36% of the popular vote (up from 19% in 2019), the SNP won 30% (down from 45%), the Tories won 13% (down from 25%), and the Lib-Dem popular vote remained virtually unchanged. Turnout was 8.5% lower than in 2019.

The headline figures correspond to canvassers’ experiences on the doorstep.

Previous SNP voters are demoralised. The “true believers” see the SNP as having gone soft on independence. Pragmatic SNP voters are disillusioned with the SNP’s record in power in Holyrood. Many SNP voters simply stayed at home.

Some of the growth in the Green vote is probably accounted for by switching by one-time SNP voters.

A substantial number of one-time SNP voters switched to Labour. Tactical voting by Tory voters in some constituencies added to the Labour vote. The first-past-the-post system translated that in to an election landslide for Labour.

Inevitably Scottish Labour is focussing on its tally of 37 MPs. But the headline figure conceals a variety of problems.

Scottish Labour is not, and was not even in the Corbyn years, a mass-membership party with a large activist base. Its membership is probably well under 20,000, about a quarter that of the SNP. Its election campaign relied on a lot of effort by few activists.

Its newly elected MPs include those responsible for the debacle of Better Together in 2014 (when Labour allied with the Tories in that year’s independence referendum) and the electoral disaster of 2015 (when Labour lost 40 of its 41 Scottish MPs). These people have learnt nothing in the meantime.

Added to them are a new generation of thought-through right-wing ideologues — and a further layer of MPs who just faithfully repeat the party line.

If Starmer faces backbench rebellions at Westminster, they will certainly not be spearheaded by Scottish Labour MPs.

Scottish Labour portrays its gains last week as the basis for further gains in the next Holyrood election. Although there is some substance to that belief, it also contains an element of wishful thinking.

Holyrood elections are based on proportional representation, not first-past-the-post. And the next election will take place during the mid-term of the Westminster Labour government, when governments tend to be at their least popular.

The election result in Scotland should give the left — inside and outside of the Labour Party — cause to reflect on what strategy it should now pursue.

The Labour left in Scotland has long been much weaker than in England. Unlike in England and Wales, there was only a minimal influx of new members under Corbyn (and by now those have now virtually all left anyway). The Scottish Labour left’s politics are largely those of the Communist Party’s Morning Star newspaper.

Labour left activists will have to challenge the “common sense” view of last week’s election: that Labour loses elections when it moves to the left, but wins elections when it moves to the right.

We will probably also face further isolation as — in the best traditions of Scottish Labour — the family, friends and employees of newly elected MPs join the Labour Party and provide the right-wing parliamentarians with a social base within the party itself.

If the “tough decisions” promised by Starmer trigger opposition from the trade unions, the Labour left will need to prioritise supporting that opposition and attempting to take it into the party itself.

For the left outside the Labour Party, the time to take stock is also well overdue.

In 2014 virtually the entire left backed a Yes vote in the independence referendum. In 2016 it largely supported Brexit (even though Scotland overall went 62-38 Remain). Now it has adopted Gaza as its cause célèbre — and, in practice, that has meant concessions to various forms of antisemitism.

Scottish independence, Brexit, and Israel-annihilationism have all been expressions of a fantasy anti-imperialism. Wrong in principle, it has also been an abject failure in practice. In electoral terms it has yielded just 2,500 votes and half a dozen lost deposits.

 

LABOUR HUB EDITORS

Britain’s landlords’ paradise must be dismantled

Mike Phipps reviews Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis, by Nick Bano, published by Verso.

JULY 10, 2024

In the ten years from 2010 to 2020, the total value of Britain’s housing stock rose by £750 million per day – excellent new for those who invest in it, but otherwise making it impossible for an increasing number to access the housing they need.

This increase has less to do with innate housing shortages and more to do with the fact that Britain has an economic and regulatory framework which is unusually good at allowing rents to rise, which in turn drives up house prices. In 2021 about 70% of housing in England and Wales was underoccupied, whereas less than 5% was overcrowded.

“Anyone who thinks that massively boosting new supply is the solution to a crisis of housing costs would do well to take a walk through central Manchester,” suggests Bano. As previously noted on Labour Hub, the city’s rents are increasing at an annual rate of 20%; in fact, the rent burden is so high that it outstrips London for unaffordability, due to the city’s lower wages.

Erven in Cornwall, it would be hard to insist that the crisis is driven by a lack of supply. A 2021 report found that there were just 52 houses available to rent in Cornwall listed on the Rightmove website, whereas Airbnb boasted over 10,000 active listings in the county.

Britain’s housing crisis has many aspects: the highest proportion of homeless households in the OECD; 100,000 children growing up in temporary accommodation; rough sleeping increasing by a third every year; and the poorest 20% of private renters surrendering more than half of their income to their landlords.

Government policy favours landlords in extraordinary ways. An increase in the housing element of universal credit, ostensibly intended to help tenants, is invariably seized on by landlords as a pretext to increase rent by a similar amount. It effectively becomes a landlord subsidy.

It was not always like this. Building restrictions, rent controls and other mechanisms led to the near death of private landlordism in the mid-20th century. In 1973 and 1974, Camden Council alone municipalised more than 4,000 privately rented homes. By 1973, privately let homes had fallen to 13% of dwellings, having stood at 61% at the end of the Second World War.

Thatcherism changed that. The selling off of 2 million council homes turned these units into highly profitable commodities at the same time as forcing more people into the increasingly lucrative private rented sector. As Bano observes, “The private rented sector is not a market in which competition tends to bring down price… Instead, the absolute necessity of housing to meet basic human needs, and the fact that many people need to live near their places of work, means that urban rents tend towards the maximum level that tenants are able to pay.”

New Labour in office did nothing to halt this trend. Instead, “council housing was prised from the inefficient hands of local government, rather than expanded, as the social sector became dominated by housing associations and ‘arm’s-length management organisations’.”  The pro-tenant attitudes that had kept land speculation in check, even if Labour were in Opposition, were no longer being articulated by the Party’s frontbenchers.

The result is an almost lawless landlords’ paradise. “It is emblematic of neoliberalism,” suggests the author, “that no one is ‘in charge’ of standards in the private rented sector. After years of de-funding, local authorities are unlikely to use their inspection and enforcement powers because they no longer have the resources.”

The fact that Britain has become a landlord’s paradise means that even the worthiest ones can act with unimpeded cruelty. One of Bano’s clients – he is a housing lawyer – was faced with eviction from her studio flat, which had been without any form of heating for two years and in which she was not allowed to have her children stay overnight, by the homelessness charity St Mungo’s. The case underlines how socially acceptable profiteering landlordism has become.

If the balance of forces is tilted against renters, it is even worse for migrants seeking to rent. Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policy required landlords to carry out immigration checks under threat of criminal penalties. But people of colour face other obstacles, besides widespread landlord racism. In 2022 Shelter and the i newspaper carried out research into the private rented sector, and found that racial inequality is “hardwired” into the housing system. Rents are more expensive, as a proportion of income, for ethnic minority tenants, who are significantly more likely to have been subject to a rent increase of more than £100 per month. “Black and brown people transfer proportionally more of their wealth to asset-owning landlords than white people do, while also facing greater insecurity and worse conditions,” concludes Bano.

Bano takes us through the history of resistance to these iniquities – rent strikes, squatting, today’s renters’ unions. Nor is this issue confined to London and other major metropolitan centres: the 2021 census showed that housing affordability had worsened in over 90% of local authority areas in England and Wales.

But renting in London, where tenants are now being charged non-refundable deposits merely to view rooms they have only a small chance of securing, remains arguably the most exploitative. And as prices rise, conditions deteriorate: the author cites an inner London example of twenty beds in a three-bedroom flat.

How long can this last? The problem is that the boom for landlords has significantly distorted the UK economy – more than half of the country’s net worth is now made up of land values. Any cooling of the overheated housing market could produce a much more general recession. If we ever get a government committed to genuinely helping renters, it is likely to use this concern as an alibi for proceeding cautiously.

But just as the sell-off of council housing under Thatcher drove up housing costs, so a plan for mass council housing would significantly interfere in the private renting market. Rent controls and a hefty increase in capital gains tax would also have an impact. Most urgent is the abolition of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, a vital step which the last  government predictably retreated from.

All these reforms are feasible. Many of them have operated in Britain in the past and elsewhere internationally. If the political will is lacking – even with a change of government – the pressure must be intensified.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.

Dad of plane crash victim condemns Boeing plea deal

By Yunus Mulla, BBC News

Family photograph
Humanitarian worker Sam Pegram died aboard a Boeing 737 Max airliner in Ethiopia in 2019

The father of an aid worker who died in a plane crash said a deal in the US courts, which means manufacturer Boeing will avoid being prosecuted, was "devastating" for bereaved families.

Sam Pegram, from Penwortham, in Lancashire, was one of 346 people killed in two crashes involving Boeing aircraft in 2018 and 19.

His family wanted the company to face a criminal trial but now the plane-maker has agreed a deal with the courts to plead guilty to criminal fraud conspiracy and pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m).

Sam's father, Mark Pegram, said there was "zero accountability" for the lives lost in the "sweetheart deal".


Mark Pegram says there is "no accountability for the 346 lives lost" in the plea deal


By pleading guilty, Boeing will avoid a criminal trial, if the settlement is agreed by a US judge.

A Boeing 737 Max plane operated by Indonesia's Lion Air crashed in October 2018 shortly after take-off, killing all 189 people on board.

Just months later, an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed, killing all 157 passengers and crew, of which Sam was one.

In 2021, prosecutors charged Boeing with one count of conspiracy to defraud regulators, alleging it had deceived the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about its MCAS flight control system, which was implicated in both crashes.

It agreed not to prosecute Boeing if the company paid a penalty and successfully completed a three-year period of increased monitoring and reporting.

But in January, shortly before that period was due to end, a door panel in a Boeing plane operated by Alaska Airlines blew out soon after take-off and forced the jet to land.

‘Boeing played Russian roulette with people’s lives’

No-one was injured during the incident but it intensified scrutiny over how much progress Boeing had made on improving its safety and quality record.

As part of the new deal, Boeing must also invest $455m (£355m) in "compliance and safety programs" and be monitored for three years.

Mr Pegram, who now lives in York, said: "It’s not enough.

"There's no accountability for the 346 lives lost. The deaths aren't even mentioned."

He said bereaved families want Boeing "to be held to account for what they have done and also act as a deterrent for others".

He said: "Unfortunately, it is a take it or leave it; the judge hasn't got the flexibility to amend elements of the plea deal so we will be arguing that he should throw that plea deal out."


'Make a difference'


Last year West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield ruled the three British people who died in the 2019 crash - Sam Pegram, Oliver Vick and Joanna Toole - were unlawfully killed.

Mr Pegram described his 25-year-old son at the inquest as a kind, compassionate man with an infectious sense of humour.

"He had a passion for human rights, but also had the drive and inner strength to make a difference," Mr Pegram said.

The family has set up the Sam Pegram Humanitarian Foundation to provide support services for refugees and early career humanitarians both in the UK and in Jordan where the aid worker spent two years of his life.

The foundation has launched the Sam Pegram Scholarship in his memory at the University of York where he graduated. It provides funding for an international student to study for an LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice.

The charity has also organised fundraisers for Sir Tom Finney Soccer Centre to help refugees and asylum seekers access football in Preston.

Bust furlough firm that listed Sunak’s wife among its directors linked to Reform UK

Digme Fitness went bust after taking £630,000 in furlough cash, owning creditors £6.1m in what is understood to be unpaid VAT and PAYE.

 by Jack Peat
2024-07-
in Politics




A firm that received hundreds of thousands of pounds in furlough money before going bust had both Rishi Sunak’s wife and a newly-elected Reform UK MP among its directors.

Digme Fitness, which went bust in 2022, listed both Akshata Murthy and Rupert Lowe as officers, with the ex-PM’s spouse using an address which is now connected with the Reform UK party.

Lowe was one of five Reform UK MPs to be elected in the general election, taking 35.3 per cent of the vote in Great Yarmouth.

He is the former chairman of Sunak’s beloved Southampton Football Club and played a prominent role in the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum before being elected for the Brexit Party in the West Midlands constituency in the 2019 European Parliament elections.

Alongside Murthy, he was listed as an officer in Digme Fitness, which took up to £630,00 in furlough cash before going bust, owing creditors around £6.1 million in what is understood to be unpaid VAT and PAYE.

Digme offered cycle, hit and yoga classes at its London venues and at home programmes for its customers to follow. Subscription packages varied from £8 per month, up to £25 per month for in-studio exercise.

The firm’s website states it helps customers “set your sights high, achieve more than you ever expected, leave feeling exhilarated and be in the best shape of your life – digging deep for real gains.”

Europe’s drinking water contaminated by ‘forever chemical’: NGOs

By

 AFP   JULY 10,2024

A large sample of European drinking water has detected a substance linked to “forever chemicals” used in pesticides and refrigeration, a coalition of non-governmental organisations said Wednesday.

It follows an earlier study in May, also by the European Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe) and its members, that found “alarming” levels of PFAS chemicals in Europe’s rivers, lakes and groundwater.

Widely used in everyday items like cosmetics, non-stick pans and fire extinguishers, PFAS long-life substances are highly durable products that can take centuries to break down.

Samples for this latest study, taken from bottled and tap water in 11 EU countries, detected the presence of TFA (trifluoroacetic acid).

A major source of TFA is degrading PFAS used in certain synthetic pesticides and cooling gases in refrigeration and air conditioning, among other applications.

The possible impact on human health of PFAS, and of TFA in particular, has been growing, but “surprisingly few toxicological studies are available”, PAN Europe said.

The samples tested by the Water Technology Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, found TFA in 34 of 36 tap water samples and in 12 of the 19 bottled mineral and spring waters.

TFA values in tap water ranged from “undetectable” to 4,100 nanograms/litre, with an average of 740 ng/L.

In mineral and spring waters, TFA values ranged from “undetectable” to 3,200 ng/L, with an average of 278 ng/L.

PAN Europe backed the proposal made by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment to set a standard at 2,200 ng/L.

This “was set in such a way that the consumption of drinking water only fulfils 20 percent of the tolerable daily intake,” PAN Europe said.

This threshold was exceeded in mineral water analysed in drinking water from Austria (4,100 ng/L), while in Paris, the tap water analysed contained 2,100 ng/L. 

Under European Union rules, from 2026 all drinking water must not exceed 500 ng/L for all PFAS, and NGOs are demanding that TFA be added to the list. 

An earlier decision to class TFA as “non-relevant” under EU pesticide regulations was “regrettable” considering its “toxicological profile still leaves many questions unanswered”, the report in May said.

A recent study on rabbits and TFA exposure found birth defects in offspring, raising serious concerns about this chemical.

PAN Europe has called for urgent interventions to address this “political failure”, starting with a “rapid ban” on PFAS pesticides and a rethink on the threat posed by individual chemicals like TFA.

Dirty Water A Killer In The Pacific

Thursday, 11 July 2024, 

Press Release: ChildFund

"It is unacceptable in 2024 that 1 in 10 deaths for children under 5 years in parts of the Pacific is linked to diarrhoea, vomiting and dirty water. This is a problem that is fixable. So, let’s fix it," says CEO of ChildFund Josie Pagani.

The Pacific has some of the highest rates of preventable deaths for children in the world, due largely to dirty water.

Child Fund has launched a campaign to bring clean water to children in Kiribati and Solomon Islands, and will expand its programmes across the region over the next year.

"The Pacific is our home and for many New Zealanders, these children are our extended family. We can’t fix all the problems in the world, but we can make a difference in the place we call home too."

Dirty water is linked to diarrhoea and vomiting, and causes some of the highest numbers of preventable child deaths in the Pacific:1 in 10 deaths for children under 5 years in Kiribati
1 in 14 deaths for children under 5 years in Solomon Islands
Only 16% of school children In Solomon Islands, have clean, safe water
Only 27% of households in Kiribati have access to clean, safe water

Giving children better access to clean water not only prevents illness and worst-case scenario, death. It also removes one of the biggest barriers to getting an education. Children often miss school because they need to walk hours to collect clean water, or driftwood for fires to boil dirty water.

"We can do something about these statistics. The solutions are often simple. Communities know what they need; fixed pipes, water tanks, simple ways to make the water safe to drink. All we need to do is listen and get the right support to fix the problem," says Josie Pagani

In Napir Village in Temotu Province in the far east of the Solomon Islands, children walk for almost two hours a day to find clean, safe drinking water, which means they are missing out on an education and a chance to play and learn and be a child.

There is no shortage of water from natural springs on the island. ChildFund is raising funds to:Rebuild a water pipe and pump system that will provide water to 3,000 people in 18 communities as well as the local school.
Complete the build of a toilet block at the local school in Napir Village to improve sanitation.

Kiribati, with its 33 islands and atolls, scattered over a vast ocean area in the heart of the Pacific has the highest child mortality rate in the Pacific. ChildFund is raising funds to:Provide families with 10 litre Solvatten units that use solar energy to purify water in just a few hours. Each unit can provide 6,000 litres of safe drinking water every year.
Install 75 litre solar powered distillation tanks at pre-schools, schools and community centres - giving children access to clean safe drinking water every day.
Build rainwater harvesting infrastructure (roofs and gutters) to capture precious, albeit infrequent rain.

"We hope to expand these initiatives across more countries in the Pacific. This is our shared home. We cannot stand by and let these children suffer from a problem that is often simple and cheap to fix."

Donate here: https://childfund.org.nz/water-for-the-pacific/

For every dollar donated, the New Zealand government provides an additional $4.

Takeaways from AP report on how China’s textile recycling efforts take a back seat to fast fashion

A worker sweeps loose cotton near a production line at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China’s largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | ap@dfmdev.com

PUBLISHED: July 10, 2024

By TIAN MACLEOD JI

WENZHOU, China — China is the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, throwing away 26 million tons of clothes each year, mostly made of unrecyclable synthetics.

A recycling factory in Zhejiang province on China’s east coast repurposes discarded cotton clothes to try to deal with the urgent waste problem. So, too, are young innovative designers in Shanghai, by remaking old garments into new ones or creating clothing out of waste items such as plastic bottles, fishing nets, flour sacks and even pineapple leaves.

MAIN STORY: 26 million tons of clothing end up in China’s landfills each year, propelled by fast fashion

But these efforts are dwarfed by giant fast-fashion brands churning out cheap synthetic garments for a consumer base spreading rapidly across the world. Experts believe real change is only possible through an elusive zero-waste workflow or Chinese government intervention.

Here are key takeaways from AP’s report:

Cotton is recycled in China, not fast-fashion synthetics

At the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, mounds of discarded cotton clothing, loosely separated into dark and light colors, pile up on a workroom floor. Jacket sleeves, collars and brand labels protrude from the stacks as workers feed the garments into shredding machines.

A worker feeds discarded textiles to a shredding machine at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China’s largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. The recycling factory that repurposes discarded cotton clothes is trying to deal with the urgent waste problem. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

It’s the first stage of a new life for the textiles at one of the largest cotton recycling plants in China.

But factories like this one are barely making a dent in a country whose clothing industry is dominated by “fast fashion” — cheap clothes made from synthetics, not cotton. Produced from petrochemicals that contribute to climate change, air and water pollution, synthetics account for 70% of domestic clothing sales in China.

Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide, according to fashion sustainability nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Even less — only 1% — are castoff clothes recycled into new garments. In China, only about 20% of textiles are recycled, according to the Chinese government — and almost all of that is cotton.

To achieve a game-changing impact, what fashion expert Shaway Yeh calls “circular sustainability” is needed among major Chinese clothing brands so waste is avoided entirely.

“You need to start it from recyclable fibers and then all these waste textiles will be put into use again,” she said.

Chinese cotton carries the taint of forced labor

Chinese cotton has a taint of its own, said Claudia Bennett of the nonprofit Human Rights Foundation. Much of it comes from forced labor in Xinjiang province by the country’s ethnic Uyghur minority.

“One-in-five cotton garments globally is linked to Uyghur forced labor,” Bennett said.

In May, the U.S. blocked imports from 26 Chinese cotton traders to avoid goods made with Uyghur forced labor. But because the supply chain is so sketchy, Uyghur cotton is used in garments produced in countries that don’t bear the “made-in-China” label, Bennett said.

“Many, many, many clothing brands are linked to Uyghur forced labor through the cotton,” she said. They “hide behind the lack of transparency in the supply chain.”
Fast-fashion brands score low on sustainability

According to a report from independent fashion watchdog Remake assessing major clothing companies on their environmental, human rights and equitability practices, there’s little accountability among the most well-known brands.

The group gave Shein, whose online marketplace groups about 6,000 Chinese clothing factories under its label, just 6 out of a possible 150 points. Chinese fast-fashion e-commerce juggernaut Temu scored zero.

Also getting zero were U.S. label SKIMS, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, and low-price brand Fashion Nova. U.S. retailer Everlane was the highest scorer at 40 points, with only half for sustainability practices.

China’s domestic policy doesn’t help

Cotton recycled from used clothing is banned from being used to make new garments inside China. This rule was initially aimed at stamping out fly-by-night Chinese operations recycling contaminated material.

A worker labors at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China’s largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

But now it means the huge spools of tightly woven rope-like cotton yarn produced at the Wenzhou Tiancheng factory from used clothing can only be sold for export, mostly to Europe.

Making matters worse, many Chinese consumers are unwilling to buy used items, something the Wenzhou factory sales director, Kowen Tang, attributes to increasing household incomes.

“They want to buy new clothes, the new stuff,” he said.

Young Chinese designers create sustainable fashions

Among younger Chinese, a growing awareness of sustainability has contributed to the emergence of fledgling “remade” clothing businesses.

Thirty-year-old designer Da Bao founded Times Remake in 2019, a Shanghai-based brand that takes secondhand clothes to create funky new fashions.

The venture, which began with Da Bao posting one-off designs online, now has a flagship store in Shanghai that stocks remade garments alongside vintage items.

The designs are “a combination of the past style and current fashion aesthetic to create something unique,” Bao said.

Zhang Na, whose fashion label, Reclothing Bank, sells clothes, bags and other accessories made from materials such as plastic bottles, fishing nets and flour sacks, speaks during an interview at her store in Shanghai on March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Zhang Na has a fashion label, Reclothing Bank, that sells clothes, bags and other accessories made from waste materials such as plastic bottles, fishing nets and flour sacks.

The items’ labels have QR codes showing their composition, how they were made and the provenance of the materials. Zhang draws on well-established production methods, including textile fibers made from pineapple leaf, a centuries-old tradition originating in the Philippines.

“We can basically develop thousands of new fabrics and new materials,” she said.
What is the future?

Recycled garments have a much higher price tag than fast-fashion brands due to their costly production methods.

And that’s the problem, said Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

“Studies repeatedly show consumers are not willing to pay higher for clothing made from recycled materials, and instead they actually expect a lower price because they see such clothing as made of secondhand stuff,” he said.

With higher costs in acquiring, sorting and processing used garments, he doesn’t see sustainable fashion succeeding on a wide scale in China, where clothes are so cheap to make.

“Companies do not have the financial incentive,” he said. For real change there needs to be “more clear signals from the very top,” he added, referring to government targets like the ones that propelled China’s electric vehicle industry.

At least for now, “fast fashion definitely is not out of fashion” in China, Lu said.

Associated Press writer Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

26 million tons of clothing end up in China’s landfills each year, propelled by fast fashion

A worker feeds discarded textiles to a shredding machine at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China’s largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. The recycling factory that repurposes discarded cotton clothes is trying to deal with the urgent waste problem. 

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | ap@dfmdev.com

PUBLISHED: July 10, 2024 
By TIAN MACLEOD JI

WENZHOU, China — At a factory in Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast, two mounds of discarded cotton clothing and bed linens, loosely separated into dark and light colors, pile up on a workroom floor. Jacket sleeves, collars and brand labels protrude from the stacks as workers feed the garments into shredding machines.

It’s the first stage of a new life for the textiles, part of a recycling effort at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of the largest cotton recycling plants in China.

Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide, according to fashion sustainability nonprofit Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Even less — only 1% — are castoff clothes recycled into new garments; the majority is used for low-value items like insulation or mattress stuffing.

RELATED: Takeaways from AP report on how China’s textile recycling efforts take a back seat to fast fashion

Nowhere is the problem more pressing than in China, the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, where more than 26 million tons of clothes are thrown away each year, according to government statistics. Most of it ends up in landfills.
































A pile of discarded textiles waits to be fed to a shredding machine at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China’s largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

And factories like this one are barely making a dent in a country whose clothing industry is dominated by “fast fashion” — cheap clothes made from unrecyclable synthetics, not cotton. Produced from petrochemicals that contribute to climate change, air and water pollution, synthetics account for 70% of domestic clothing sales in China.

China’s footprint is worldwide: E-commerce juggernaut brands Shein and Temu make the country one of the world’s largest producers of cheap fashion, selling in more than 150 countries.


To achieve a game-changing impact, what fashion expert Shaway Yeh calls “circular sustainability” is needed among major Chinese clothing brands so waste is avoided entirely.

“You need to start it from recyclable fibers and then all these waste textiles will be put into use again,” she said.

But that is an elusive goal: Only about 20% of China’s textiles are recycled, according to the Chinese government — and almost all of that is cotton.

Chinese cotton is not without a taint of its own, said Claudia Bennett of the nonprofit Human Rights Foundation. Much of it comes from forced labor in Xinjiang province by the country’s ethnic Uyghur minority.

“One in five cotton garments globally is linked to Uyghur forced labor,” Bennett said.

In May, the U.S. blocked imports from 26 Chinese cotton traders and warehouses to avoid goods made with Uyghur forced labor. But because the supply chain is so sketchy, Uyghur cotton is used in garments produced in other countries that don’t bear the “made-in-China” label, Bennett said.

“Many, many, many clothing brands are linked to Uyghur forced labor through the cotton,” she said. They “hide behind the lack of transparency in the supply chain.”

While China is a global leader in the production of electric cars and electric-powered public transit and has set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, its efforts in promoting fashion sustainability and recycling textiles have taken a back seat.

According to a report this year from independent fashion watchdog Remake assessing major clothing companies on their environmental, human rights and equitability practices, there’s little accountability among the best-known brands.

The group gave Shein, whose online marketplace groups about 6,000 Chinese clothing factories under its label, just 6 out of a possible 150 points. Temu scored zero.

Also getting zero were U.S. label SKIMS, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, and low-price brand Fashion Nova. U.S. retailer Everlane was the highest-scorer at 40 points, with only half of those for sustainability practices.

China’s domestic policy doesn’t help.

Cotton recycled from used clothing is banned from being used to make new garments inside China. This rule was initially aimed at stamping out fly-by-night Chinese operations recycling dirty or otherwise contaminated material.

But now it means the huge spools of tightly woven rope-like cotton yarn produced at the Wenzhou Tiancheng factory from used clothing can only be sold for export, mostly to Europe.

Making matters worse, many Chinese consumers are unwilling to buy used items anyway, something the Wenzhou factory sales director, Kowen Tang, attributes to increasing household incomes.

“They want to buy new clothes, the new stuff,” he said of the stigma associated with buying used.

Still, among younger Chinese, a growing awareness of sustainability has contributed to the emergence of fledgling “remade” clothing businesses.











Founder Da Bao speaks to a worker at a workshop for Times Remake, a Shanghai-based brand that takes secondhand clothes and refashions them into new garments in Shanghai on March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Thirty-year-old designer Da Bao founded Times Remake in 2019, a Shanghai-based brand that takes secondhand clothes and refashions them into new garments. At the company’s work room in Shanghai, tailors work with secondhand denims and sweatshirts, stitching them into funky new fashions.

The venture, which began with Da Bao and his father-in-law posting their one-off designs online, now has a flagship store in Shanghai’s trendy Jing’an District that stocks their remade garments alongside vintage items, such as Levi’s and Carhartt jackets.

The designs are “a combination of the past style and current fashion aesthetic to create something unique,” Bao said.

Zhang Na has a fashion label, Reclothing Bank, that sells clothes, bags and other accessories made from materials such as plastic bottles, fishing nets and flour sacks.

The items’ labels have QR codes that show their composition, how they were made and the provenance of the materials. Zhang draws on well-established production methods, such as textile fibers made from pineapple leaf, a centuries-old tradition originating in the Philippines.

“We can basically develop thousands of new fabrics and new materials,” she said.

Reclothing Bank began in 2010 to give “new life to old things,” Zhang said of her store in a historic Shanghai alley with a mix of Western and Chinese architecture. A large used clothes deposit box sat outside the entrance.

“Old items actually carry a lot of people’s memories and emotions,” she said.

Zhang said she has seen sustainability consciousness grow since she opened her store, with core customers in their 20s and 30s.

Bao Yang, a college student who dropped by the store on a visit to Shanghai, said she was surprised at the feel of the clothes.

“I think it’s amazing, because when I first entered the door, I heard that many of the clothes were actually made of shells or corn (husks), but when I touched the clothes in detail, I had absolutely no idea that they would have this very comfortable feel,” she said.

Still, she conceded that buying sustainable clothing is a hard sell. “People of my age are more addicted to fast fashion, or they do not think about the sustainability of clothes,” she said.

Recycled garments sold at stores like Reclothing Bank have a much higher price tag than fast-fashion brands due to their costly production methods.

And therein lies the real problem, said Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

“Studies repeatedly show consumers are not willing to pay higher for clothing made from recycled materials, and instead they actually expect a lower price because they see such clothing as made of secondhand stuff,” he said.

With higher costs in acquiring, sorting and processing used garments, he doesn’t see sustainable fashion succeeding on a wide scale in China, where clothes are so cheap to make.

“Companies do not have the financial incentive,” he said.

For real change there needs to be “more clear signals from the very top,” he added, referring to government targets like the ones that propelled China’s EV industry.

Still, in China “government can be a friend to any sector,” Lu said, so if China’s communist leaders see economic potential, it could trigger a policy shift that drives new investment in sustainable fashion.

But for now, the plastic-wrapped cones of tightly-wound cotton being loaded onto trucks outside the Wenzhou Tiancheng factory were all headed to overseas markets, far from where their recycling journey began.

“Fast fashion definitely is not out of fashion” in China, Lu said.

Associated Press writer Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.